Darkness is present when there is an absence of light. If you are in darkness proclaiming to be bringing the light, something isn't right.
Detroit, MI has more churches per capita than any other U.S. city. And yet it is one of the darkest cities in the country. Something isn't right.
~paraphrased from Harvey Carey's speech at the Leadership Summit this year (from the 15 minutes that I actually attended haha)
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory, Glory!
Summer is already wrapping up, the days are cooling down, and somehow August has snuck up on me. I'm not quite sure how this happened or where the time went, but I don't feel like I've gotten to enjoy my summer nearly as much as summers past. I had plenty going on, which may have been part of what made it fly by. Whatever the reason, I'd prefer God rewind just a little bit and bring some more warm weather.
So I'm all done with weddings for now. Don't see any in the near future, though my sister got engaged a couple of weeks ago. I'm concerned about that; she's only been dating the guy since February, and he has already cheated on her. My brother was telling me that she doesn't treat him the best either, and that they go back and forth a lot and tend to bring out the immaturity in each other. My family isn't a fan of him, though they'll support her through whatever decision she makes. One good thing in it is that when she said yes, she gave him the condition that the date had to be at least a year out so that they could take real premarital counseling (not just the weekend type) so that they could work through some of the issues they have before entering into a marital relationship. I'm proud of her for at least having some head on her shoulder through this, because I know she gets caught up into things and carried away often. All I can do is pray for her and her decisions. Speaking of which, I suddenly feel like I don't pray for my family enough. I pray for them just in the sense that they're my family and I love them, but none of them are Christians, and I feel like I should be praying constantly for them to actually find God. I think about it a lot, but I don't think I lift it up to God as much as I should be. Something I would like to work on.
I also had the opportunity to go on the Xtreeme camping trip this past weekend. Xtreeme is the high school youth group at our church, and I'm going to be one of the leaders this year! I'm very excited, as I'm sure anyone around me lately could tell you since I keep talking about it. The camping trip was amazing. First of all, let me prefice by saying that I didn't plan on going on this trip...when I first heard about it in June when I had openly expressed my interest in helping out with Xtreeme this coming year, I really wanted to go because I love camping, but it required taking two days off of work, and I had no idea what my schedule would be looking like since I was told I'd be starting shiftwork sometime in August (turns out it'll be Aug 31st). I was also unable to make it to the planning meeting the week before the trip because I was gone for a wedding. So I chalked it up as I wasn't supposed to be going and let it go. But then Pastor Jeff text messaged me Tuesday or Wednesday last week asking me if I'd be interested in going with them. I knew I really wanted to, and I knew I had the vacation time, so I juggled meetings and got them moved around, cleared my schedule, and told him I'd go! I then started preparing myself to be patient because I know P.J. isn't a huge planner; he would much rather wing it, come what may then set a schedule for something. This is a huge clash for a person like me who likes planning things out and ensuring there is a time and place for everything. I didn't know where we were even going until we were on the road and I asked him. He had some tentative plans for the weekend, but figured we'd just make it up as we go. Luckily he had one of the moms pack all of the food, so that was planned out at the very least, but otherwise, we just winged the weekend. It was an open opportunity to practice patience and not let my nature get the best of me. It also made for a very relaxing weekend, making it feel like a nice mini vacation, which was nice after having the stress of all of the weddings plus work non-stop for the previous month.
Anyway, like I said, the trip was amazing. That group of kids are exceptional, it was so much fun to get to know them. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to get to know them and connect before Xtreeme actually starts and activities are non-stop, it was nice to have the weekend to sit around on the beach or around the campfire and chat with each of them at some point in the four days. It was also so cool to me to see how real most of their faiths are. They were really on fire about living out Jesus's example and telling their friends about him and keeping each other accountable. And the fact that it was such a wide mix of students, you had all the normal high school genres... cheerleader, nerd, geeks, jocks, hard rockers, and freshman through seniors were all represented. And they all got along; not just making it through the weekend without drama by avoiding each other, but everyone actually talked and hung out and got along with each other. I realize it may be different at school, but I was impressed to see that they didn't let those things come between them in any way on this trip. The coolest conversation I was a part of during the weekend was Monday night when one of the girls was texting a guy she has a crush on who is not Christian. She was trying to figure out how she is supposed to handle a situation like that, and 3 guys rallied around her and were coaching her through why it's important to be with Christians (one guy started rattling off all sorts of verses about being unequally yoked for her!), and how she could bring up the conversation with the guy. She ended up bringing it up somewhat over texts, so they were coaching her about what to say, what his responses meant according to the male mind, and just generally encouraging her about the whole situation while really working on keeping her accountable. I was very impressed with them, and I'm really excited to work with them this year and keep pushing them to stay on that path.
Ok, I'm done going on and on now. At least you've avoided my rant in person (unless you haven't, then you got to hear it twice haha!) I'll just leave you with Xtreeme's verse (X-Tree-Me...Jesus died on a tree for me!)
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." -1 Peter 2:24
So I'm all done with weddings for now. Don't see any in the near future, though my sister got engaged a couple of weeks ago. I'm concerned about that; she's only been dating the guy since February, and he has already cheated on her. My brother was telling me that she doesn't treat him the best either, and that they go back and forth a lot and tend to bring out the immaturity in each other. My family isn't a fan of him, though they'll support her through whatever decision she makes. One good thing in it is that when she said yes, she gave him the condition that the date had to be at least a year out so that they could take real premarital counseling (not just the weekend type) so that they could work through some of the issues they have before entering into a marital relationship. I'm proud of her for at least having some head on her shoulder through this, because I know she gets caught up into things and carried away often. All I can do is pray for her and her decisions. Speaking of which, I suddenly feel like I don't pray for my family enough. I pray for them just in the sense that they're my family and I love them, but none of them are Christians, and I feel like I should be praying constantly for them to actually find God. I think about it a lot, but I don't think I lift it up to God as much as I should be. Something I would like to work on.
I also had the opportunity to go on the Xtreeme camping trip this past weekend. Xtreeme is the high school youth group at our church, and I'm going to be one of the leaders this year! I'm very excited, as I'm sure anyone around me lately could tell you since I keep talking about it. The camping trip was amazing. First of all, let me prefice by saying that I didn't plan on going on this trip...when I first heard about it in June when I had openly expressed my interest in helping out with Xtreeme this coming year, I really wanted to go because I love camping, but it required taking two days off of work, and I had no idea what my schedule would be looking like since I was told I'd be starting shiftwork sometime in August (turns out it'll be Aug 31st). I was also unable to make it to the planning meeting the week before the trip because I was gone for a wedding. So I chalked it up as I wasn't supposed to be going and let it go. But then Pastor Jeff text messaged me Tuesday or Wednesday last week asking me if I'd be interested in going with them. I knew I really wanted to, and I knew I had the vacation time, so I juggled meetings and got them moved around, cleared my schedule, and told him I'd go! I then started preparing myself to be patient because I know P.J. isn't a huge planner; he would much rather wing it, come what may then set a schedule for something. This is a huge clash for a person like me who likes planning things out and ensuring there is a time and place for everything. I didn't know where we were even going until we were on the road and I asked him. He had some tentative plans for the weekend, but figured we'd just make it up as we go. Luckily he had one of the moms pack all of the food, so that was planned out at the very least, but otherwise, we just winged the weekend. It was an open opportunity to practice patience and not let my nature get the best of me. It also made for a very relaxing weekend, making it feel like a nice mini vacation, which was nice after having the stress of all of the weddings plus work non-stop for the previous month.
Anyway, like I said, the trip was amazing. That group of kids are exceptional, it was so much fun to get to know them. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to get to know them and connect before Xtreeme actually starts and activities are non-stop, it was nice to have the weekend to sit around on the beach or around the campfire and chat with each of them at some point in the four days. It was also so cool to me to see how real most of their faiths are. They were really on fire about living out Jesus's example and telling their friends about him and keeping each other accountable. And the fact that it was such a wide mix of students, you had all the normal high school genres... cheerleader, nerd, geeks, jocks, hard rockers, and freshman through seniors were all represented. And they all got along; not just making it through the weekend without drama by avoiding each other, but everyone actually talked and hung out and got along with each other. I realize it may be different at school, but I was impressed to see that they didn't let those things come between them in any way on this trip. The coolest conversation I was a part of during the weekend was Monday night when one of the girls was texting a guy she has a crush on who is not Christian. She was trying to figure out how she is supposed to handle a situation like that, and 3 guys rallied around her and were coaching her through why it's important to be with Christians (one guy started rattling off all sorts of verses about being unequally yoked for her!), and how she could bring up the conversation with the guy. She ended up bringing it up somewhat over texts, so they were coaching her about what to say, what his responses meant according to the male mind, and just generally encouraging her about the whole situation while really working on keeping her accountable. I was very impressed with them, and I'm really excited to work with them this year and keep pushing them to stay on that path.
Ok, I'm done going on and on now. At least you've avoided my rant in person (unless you haven't, then you got to hear it twice haha!) I'll just leave you with Xtreeme's verse (X-Tree-Me...Jesus died on a tree for me!)
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." -1 Peter 2:24
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